Monday, September 22, 2008

All the associations are going to be flushed with the funds now with over 700cr being allocated to "prepare"athletes for the commonwealth games... how much of that is really going to make it to the athletes in a timely fashion remains to be seen but it is an enormous amount that could actually (if used correctly) be stretched to the next olympics, i somehow doubt that... regardless this gives us a good opportunity to actually help out the young kids and really get good systems in place so that we have a cycle in place to constantly replace the older ones...The other heartening thing is that our athletes are so touched by all our support that they are eager to give back in any way they can and so I am going to have akhil scout and find out some young and talented boxers and ofcourse abhinav is eager and ready to help out shooting. So for the first time we can actually groom right from the bottom.... actually "creating" champions right from the ground up is something that i have long tried to achieve and since i am now able to do it with such a great group of people nothing could be better.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

So have been really really really busy in the last couple of weeks actually getting things started again... for starters Saina has won yet another tournament this one was even bigger than the Philippines open that she won so we are really proud of her and now the goal is to make sure she keeps improving we keep moving forward.my goal for the next couple of months now is to actually have a good group of juniors in place and have not really done that till now because i have never had a precedent to follow and was not sure whether we were going in the right direction or not and didn't want to waste money but now i have a lot of clarity in at least the sports we have been involved with in the last couple of years and so it is just a matter of putting plans in place.we are presently trying out 20 young archers in bangalore and hopefully will get a couple of good ones coming out of that. i would like to have the same process in all the other sports while adding more sports to the charter so in the process of doing the research. Any suggestions and tips will be welcome since the more people helping the better.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

my schedule is finally slowing down...was on a 4 day holiday and then had to zip to london to discuss the next steps with Mr. Mittal and family so a post has been long overdue.

Anyway things are looking great in terms of what we have achieved so far but now the bar has been raised for London and am excited at the challenge.

The key for the next couple of months is getting a good group of athletes and a bigger pool. So there are a few core sports as of right now like shooting, archery and boxing and we need to expand those and try and reach out to as many people as possible. Am going to also go down to the grassroot level and help fund those which should create a good cycle of athletes in a few years.

It is also imperative that we now reach out to the the other sports where we are not so good and start grooming people for the future. They might not be ready for the London Games but maybe the next ones after that. However it is important for the overall quality of sport in the country and hence am going to be looking into that.

The sport i am eager to help because i don't believe we are far off is athletics because i feel like there are certain events we can do very well in and it is just a matter of getting the right training. So that is going to be my immediate project.

The archery program has already started with our korean coach having a month long trial for finally selecting the group. It is being held at the Jain School in bangalore which has some of the best facilities in the country.